for a crown/ i wear the false smile of a simile/ you’ll be tempted to call it bubbles/ but i pray you look again/ see the weight that stoops my shoulders like the sky shouldering the weight of all the stars/

o grief/ i’m learning to outgrow you/ which is why you find the shimmering earrings of metaphors dangling from my ears/ i will no longer pay homage in your shrine/ do not expect to find the feet of this prodigal child waltzing on your cold soil as in erstwhile times/

i burrow my body into the blouse of a trembling personification/ it is a big blouse/ but it is so because i do not only wish to shield my nakedness/ i plan to hide/ to crawl into the sanctuary of my own skin/ still/ my eyes will not pour libations on the crooked stones of your cherished altars/

do you feel how tight the irony of my skirt clings to my thighs/ in hushing me/ you’ve amplified my voice & given it the fist of an arrogant thunder/ if you knew i’d take the route of rebirth & levitate into a phoenix/ perhaps you’d have spared me your flames/

my feet look pretty in their dainty shoes of apostrophe/ where are you/ God in this poem/ my lips unfurls & becomes a bard/ even you cringe at its canticles & mellow at the sound of its approaching psalms/ because they’ve shapeshifted into winged music that fly / & in their boldness/ they’ll embody a reply from their trip as if they’ve swallowed all the distance between heaven & earth.

Biography

John Ebute is a medical student from Nigeria. He is passionate about using the power of the pen to influence his world. And in doing so, impact the world of others.